It's frightening . . . The Indianapolis Motor Speedway demands respect, and when the 33-car field averages more than 208 miles per hour, it's hard to believe the track is getting its due.

The first Indianapolis 500 was won at an average speed of 74.59 miles per hour. Ray Harroun and the rest of the guys undoubtedly felt they were on the ragged edge. Imagine what they'd think about today's speeds over a track that is still just 50 feet wide on the straightaways and 60 feet wide in the turns.

The debate about speed has become an annual part of the prerace media package. "If somebody had said 10 years ago that you'd have to run 200 (miles per hour) just to get into the race, I'd have borrowed all I could to bet," said A.J. Foyt, who will be starting his 28th consecutive race today. No one in this field has been more a part of the transformation.

The evolution of the race cars has been directly responsible for the whole thing. The aerodynamic configuration of today's machines has given the drivers a boldness which almost defies explanation.

George Snider is a perfect example. In the past five years, he has driven in just seven Indy-car races. Four of them were right here. And this year, with just one lap of practice, he qualified at an average speed of 205.455 mph. It took either a tremendous amount of courage

Someone asked pole-sitter Pancho Carter what percentages he would ascribe to car and driver. "No driver can carry one of these cars, but at the same time, you need to have a driver to sort things out. I guess I'd say it's about 75 percent car today, but that other 25 percent is more important than it's ever been."

It's frightening . . .

Twenty-three of the 33 starters today will be March chasses, which have taken Indy-car racing by storm in the last couple of years. That's where the fear comes in.

The problem is that the March apparently has a suspension problem that has not been resolved .- at least not to the complete satisfaction of all concerned.

The culprit is something called the CV joint. A number of Marches have encountered the problem since the 1985 model was unveiled. If the same percentage of a particular General Motors model showed such a defect, the government would likely demand a recall. But as the Indianapolis 500 is set to begin, the question of the March CV joint is unanswered.

A suspension failure at more than 200 miles per hour could be disastrous. The most serious consequences occur when the the car suddenly is thrown into an uncontrollable spin. If the car happens to be running alone, the results would be bad enough. If a failure were to take place in traffic, there's no telling what might happen. At 200 mph, the reflex time is virtually nil.

Carter was asked about the apparent problem and how his crew had handled it. He indicated that a modification had been made to rectify the situation. When someone else asked whether the information learned by his team had been shared with other March teams, he shrugged.

It's frightening . . .

Six rookies are in the field today. Every one of them has served some kind of an apprenticeship, but for two of them, the Indianapolis 500 will be the first race in this kind of car at these speeds on a track like this one.

That's cause for concern. Unlike road racing, which requires many various - and intricate - driving maneuvers to complete one lap in which the car may be traveling one second at 40 miles per hour, another at 180, oval-tracking at Indy is left turns and pedal-to-the-metal. Period.

The worst of it will be in the early laps. "It's going to be a white- knuckler for us at the beginning," one driver said - and he happened to be Mario Andretti, who has 19 of these races behind him and should be ready for just about anything.

"Nobody wants to mess up, because they know a mistake won't only hurt someone else but themselves as well," Andretti continued. "Not everyone is in full control of his emotions at the start."

Raul Boesel and Arie Luyendyk are the greenest of the rookie lot having been in an Indy car race before. Both appear to be heads-up in every sense, yet there is no way to predict anyone's reaction to something as awe-inspiring as the start of the Indianapolis 500.

It's frightening . . . it wouldn't be the Indianapolis 500 if it was anything else.